Hide And Seek In The Dark

December 18, 2011

This is an event that happened to me and a few other people approximately five years ago, when I was 18. I had a long term relationship with my then girlfriend (now fiancée) and used to travel to see her every weekend. This particular weekend her family from Australia were visiting us in the UK. I got on quite well with her cousin (who lived a few houses away from her), and two of the cousins from Australia. So one evening, approximately 23:00, we decided to play a game in which we split into two teams, with one team hiding and the other team trying to find them with a flashlight. We decided to go down to the local field to play this game. I’ve included a map to make it easier to describe what was going on and where certain things were occurring.

So, it was pitch black (quite far from any cities, so no real light pollution). We split into two teams, one consisting of myself, my girlfriend and one of her Australian cousins, and the other consisting of her cousin and other Australian cousin. We reached the entrance to the field (marked C on the map) from the short walk from my girlfriend’s house (marked A). My team were going to hide, and the other team were going to give us some time to hide, then come looking for us. You can’t see it on the map, but at the time there was a big mound of dirt around 8ft high that went from one side of the field to the other (marked F). The other team stood on there for a while, flashlight off, whilst we went to hide. We immediately went to the position marked D on the map, laid on the floor, and waited. It was very dark, pretty cold, and quite misty.

After a short period of time, the flashlight went on, and we could see the other team walking around trying to find us. They immediately walked south down the ridge towards point E. Once they reached point E, we could see the flashlight moving around quite a lot, as if they were sure we were there. After about a minute, they obviously decided we were somewhere else, and started to walk across the field from E to point B. They got about halfway across the field, turned around, and walked back towards point E, again moving their flashlight as if they were sure we were hiding somewhere over there. At this point, with the eiree silence and darkness of the field, my girlfriend decided she had had enough of this game (she was getting “freaked out”) and decided she was going to go back home; so she got up from our hiding place, and walked around the edge of the field back towards point C.

Now, this is a piece of information we only learnt afterwards, but as my girlfriend passed point C to go back home, she noticed that the bushes were rustling; more aggressively then they would have done from the wind alone, not to mention that there wasn’t much wind at all that night. She didn’t think much of it at the time and quickened her pace slightly to get home.

So, the team looking for us spent a lot of time moving towards point E and the tree between point D and E. It was as if they were absolutely sure that we were there. A few minutes after my girlfriend left, the security light in the back garden of B suddenly came on. We were in a pretty good position to see in the garden of B, and there was absolutely nothing there. No animals, no people, nothing.

Obviously, the other team, on seeing the light go on, moved quickly across the field towards B. Once there, they moved their flashlights around for a minute or so, then they suddenly moved quickly across the field again, back towards point E. It was almost as if they thought we were at point B but had run back towards point E when the moved over there. Again, they got to point E, and seemed to be a little confused about what was going on. (Discussing these events afterwards, I found out that the other team were pretty sure at almost every point up to now that they were really close to catching us, and that they could hear us moving about and were following the noises of us moving.) So, this is where it starts to get a little weird. The other team were again walking around the middle of the field when, suddenly, a loud noise started to come from the bushes near E. It was banging of metal on metal. Almost once every few seconds, there would be the echoey and tinny sound of metal on metal. At this point, myself and the other guy, kinda half freaked out, began to laugh a little. I guess now, looking back, that it was one of those moments where laughing really broke the eerie tension. At soon as we started laughing, the other team moved quickly towards us and found us. All the time, this banging is still going on.

We started to discuss that things were getting a bit creepy and we should probably end the game. The other team mentioned (as I described above) how they were sure we were at point E, as they kept hearing noises as if people were whispering to each other. That revelation mixed with the creepy banging noise really had us tense now. We decided, as a group of young guys egging each other on would, that we would go over towards point E and find out what that banging was. Almost the moment we decided to go investigate, the banging stopped. Even more determined to find out what was going on, we marched over towards point E and stood in a perfect line, side by side staring into the darkness towards the hedge. We stood there for a moment, looking over, when one of the Australian cousins decided to pick up an empty plastic bottle on the floor by his foot, and throw it towards where the banging had been coming from.

… and that’s when we heard it. The creepiest fucking noise I had ever heard. I can only describe it as a lengthy whisper-like growl. It said something, slow and elongated and terrifying, but I couldn’t exactly make out what it said. It was one of those moments where I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing. Almost the moment it happened, we all looked at each other. The looks on everyone else’s told me immediately that we’d all heard it. One of the guys shouted “RUN” and we absolutely bolted across the field back towards point C. I don’t know whether this actually happened, or whether it was just out of plain fear, but at one point whilst running one of the guys at the front looked around and shouted “SOMETHING’S CHASING US.”

At this point, I was the one at the back; now terrified that I was being chased, fear took over and I ran the fastest I’ve ever ran. We made it to the gates at point C, but we carried on all the way down to the row of houses at the entrance to point A. We looked around at this point and, seeing nothing, decided not to wait around to find out. We carried on running and burst through the door of the house.

So, that’s my unexplained experience. We kept talking about it for the rest of the night, and we all pretty much had the exact same creepy experience. There was definitely something over at that hedge, and it creeped us the fuck out, but what it was I still don’t know.

There's a possibility all of these stories are the result of drugs, mental illness, physical illness, stress, sleep paralysis, dreams, or natural phenomena misidentified. That all of these stories are the result of the story teller lying or exaggerating.
But out of all the hundreds of stories here there is also the very real possibility that perhaps one is the absolute truth, that one has no other possible explanation other than the supernatural.
The question is, which story is it and what would that suggest about the universe.